Advice To Marketers: You Should Really Research Why Something Is Trending On Twitter

You know that thing about there being no such thing as bad publicity? Well, it’s not true. Just ask the online retailer that is on the receiving end of Internet hatred after it posted a Tweet that made it look like the site was crassly trying to cash in on the deadly shooting rampage at last night’s Dark Knight Rises screening in Colorado.

Earlier today, the Twitter account for CelebBoutique.com Tweeted the following (which it has since removed but which the Internet has saved for posterity):

Followed by a link to the site where one could presumably buy the dress.

Unfortunately, as you have probably figured out without having to do a single second’s worth of research, #Aurora is trending on Twitter today because that is the town where the tragic incident occurred.

In several parts, the company Tweeted:
We didn’t check what the trend was about hence the confusion, again we do apologise.
We are incredibly sorry for our tweet about Aurora – Our PR is NOT US based and had not checked the reason for the trend, at that time our social media was totally UNAWARE of the situation and simply thought it was another trending topic – we have removed the very insensitive tweet and will of course take more care in future to look into what we say in our tweets. Again we do apologise for any offense caused… this was not intentional & will not occur again. Our most sincere apologies for both the tweet and situation.